To the Senate and House of Representatives: The undersigned, Women of the United States, respectfully ask an amendment of the Constitution that shall prohibit the several states from disenfranchising [prevent a group of people from voting] any of their citizens on the ground of gender. In making our demand for suffrage, we would call your attention to the fact that we represent fifteen million people - one half of the entire population of the country - intelligent, virtuous, native-born American citizens and yet not provided with political recognition. A Petition for Universal Suffrage The Constitution classes us free people and counts as whole persons in the basis of recognition and representation; and yet we are governed without our consent, unlike men. We are compelled to pay taxes without appeal when laws do not suit us, and punished for violations of the law without choice of judge or representatives to make laws... Source: Suffrage Petition (1866) Rochester, NY 1) What are TWO reasons the petition states with regards to why women should have the right to vote? a) b) 2) How is "...paying taxes without appeal when laws do not suit us" (last paragraph) similar to the American revolutionary war cry "no taxation without representation"
